Assassination
American federal holiday
National memorial
National Historical Park

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Martin Luther
KingKing Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was
an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible
spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1954 until
his death in 1968. He is best known for advancing civil rights through
nonviolence and civil disobedience, tactics his
ChristianChristian beliefs and
the nonviolent activism of
Mahatma GandhiMahatma Gandhi helped inspire.
KingKing led the 1955
Montgomery bus boycottMontgomery bus boycott and in 1957 became the first
president of the
Southern Christian Leadership ConferenceSouthern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). With
the SCLC, he led an unsuccessful 1962 struggle against segregation in
Albany, Georgia, and helped organize the nonviolent 1963 protests in
Birmingham, Alabama. He also helped organize the 1963 March on
Washington, where he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
On October 14, 1964,
KingKing won the
Nobel Peace PrizeNobel Peace Prize for combating
racial inequality through nonviolent resistance.[1] In 1965, he helped
organize the Selma to Montgomery marches. The following year, he and
the SCLC took the movement north to
ChicagoChicago to work on segregated
housing. In his final years, he expanded his focus to include
opposition towards poverty and the Vietnam War. He alienated many of
his liberal allies with a 1967 speech titled "Beyond Vietnam". J.
Edgar Hoover considered him a radical and made him an object of the
FBI's
COINTELPROCOINTELPRO from 1963 on. FBI agents investigated him for
possible communist ties, recorded his extramarital liaisons and
reported on them to government officials, and on one occasion mailed
KingKing a threatening anonymous letter, which he interpreted as an
attempt to make him commit suicide.
In 1968,
KingKing was planning a national occupation of Washington, D.C.,
to be called the Poor People's Campaign, when he was assassinated by
James Earl RayJames Earl Ray on April 4 in Memphis, Tennessee; riots followed in
many U.S. cities. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal
of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. Martin Luther
KingKing Jr.
Day was established as a holiday in numerous cities and states
beginning in 1971, and as a U.S. federal holiday in 1986. Hundreds of
streets in the U.S. have been renamed in his honor, and a county in
Washington State was also rededicated for him. The Martin Luther King
Jr. Memorial on the
National MallNational Mall in Washington, D.C., was dedicated
in 2011.

The high school that
KingKing attended was named after African-American
educator Booker T. Washington.

KingKing was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, to the
Reverend
Martin Luther King, Sr.Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King.[2] King's
legal name at birth was Michael King, and his father was also born
Michael King, but the elder
KingKing changed both his and his son's names
around 1934.[3][4] The elder
KingKing would later state that "Michael" was
a mistake by the attending physician to his son's birth,[5] and the
younger King's birth certificate was altered to read "Martin Luther
KingKing Jr." in 1957.[6] King's parents were both African-American, and
he also had Irish ancestry through his paternal
great-grandfather.[7][8][9]
KingKing was a middle child, between older sister Christine
KingKing Farris
and younger brother A.D. King.[10]
KingKing sang with his church choir at
the 1939
AtlantaAtlanta premiere of the movie Gone with the Wind,[11] and he
enjoyed singing and music. His mother was an accomplished organist and
choir leader who took him to various churches to sing, and he received
attention for singing "I Want to Be More and More Like Jesus". King
later became a member of the junior choir in his church.[12]
KingKing said that his father regularly whipped him until he was fifteen;
a neighbor reported hearing the elder
KingKing telling his son "he would
make something of him even if he had to beat him to death."
KingKing saw
his father's proud and fearless protests against segregation, such as
KingKing Sr. refusing to listen to a traffic policeman after being
referred to as "boy," or stalking out of a store with his son when
being told by a shoe clerk that they would have to "move to the rear"
of the store to be served.[13]
When
KingKing was a child, he befriended a white boy whose father owned a
business near his family's home. When the boys were six, they started
school:
KingKing had to attend a school for African Americans and the
other boy went to one for whites (public schools were among the
facilities segregated by state law).
KingKing lost his friend because the
child's father no longer wanted the boys to play together.[14]
KingKing suffered from depression throughout much of his life. In his
adolescent years, he initially felt resentment against whites due to
the "racial humiliation" that he, his family, and his neighbors often
had to endure in the segregated South.[15] At the age of 12, shortly
after his maternal grandmother died,
KingKing blamed himself and jumped
out of a second-story window, but survived.[16]
KingKing was skeptical of many of Christianity's claims. At the age of 13,
he denied the bodily resurrection of Jesus during Sunday school.[17]
From this point, he stated, "doubts began to spring forth
unrelentingly."[18][17] However, he later concluded that the Bible has
"many profound truths which one cannot escape" and decided to enter
the seminary.[17]
Growing up in Atlanta,
KingKing attended
Booker T. WashingtonBooker T. Washington High School.
He became known for his public speaking ability and was part of the
school's debate team.[19] When
KingKing was thirteen in 1942, he became
the youngest assistant manager of a newspaper delivery station for the
AtlantaAtlanta Journal.[20] During his junior year, he won first prize in an
oratorical contest sponsored by the Negro Elks Club in Dublin,
Georgia. On the ride home to
AtlantaAtlanta by bus, he and his teacher were
ordered by the driver to stand so that white passengers could sit
down.
KingKing initially refused but complied after his teacher told him
that he would be breaking the law if he did not submit. During this
incident,
KingKing said that he was "the angriest I have ever been in my
life."[19] An outstanding student, he skipped both the ninth and the
twelfth grades of high school.[21]
During King's junior year in high school, Morehouse College—a
respected historically black college—announced that it would accept
any high school juniors who could pass its entrance exam. At that
time, many students had abandoned further studies to enlist in World
War II. Due to this, Morehouse was eager to fill its classrooms. At
the age of 15,
KingKing passed the exam and entered Morehouse.[19] The
summer before his last year at Morehouse, in 1947, the 18-year-old
KingKing chose to enter the ministry. He had concluded that the church
offered the most assuring way to answer "an inner urge to serve
humanity." King's "inner urge" had begun developing, and he made peace
with the Baptist Church, as he believed he would be a "rational"
minister with sermons that were "a respectful force for ideas, even
social protest."[22]
In 1948,
KingKing graduated at age 19 from Morehouse with a B.A. in
sociology. He then enrolled in
Crozer Theological SeminaryCrozer Theological Seminary in Chester,
Pennsylvania, from which he graduated with a B.Div. degree in
1951.[23][24] King's father fully supported his decision to continue
his education.
While attending Crozer,
KingKing was joined by Walter McCall, a former
classmate at Morehouse.[25] At Crozer,
KingKing was elected president of
the student body.[26] The African-American students of Crozer for the
most part conducted their social activity on Edwards Street. King
became fond of the street because a classmate had an aunt who prepared
collard greens for them, which they both relished.[27]
KingKing once reproved another student for keeping beer in his room,
saying they had shared responsibility as African Americans to bear
"the burdens of the Negro race." For a time, he was interested in
Walter Rauschenbusch's "social gospel."[26] In his third year at
Morehouse,
KingKing became romantically involved with the white daughter
of an immigrant German woman who worked as a cook in the cafeteria.
The daughter had been involved with a professor prior to her
relationship with King.
KingKing planned to marry her, but friends advised
against it, saying that an interracial marriage would provoke
animosity from both blacks and whites, potentially damaging his
chances of ever pastoring a church in the South.
KingKing tearfully told a
friend that he could not endure his mother's pain over the marriage
and broke the relationship off six months later. He continued to have
lingering feelings toward the women he left; one friend was quoted as
saying, "He never recovered."[26]
KingKing married Coretta Scott on June 18, 1953, on the lawn of her
parents' house in her hometown of Heiberger, Alabama.[28] They became
the parents of four children:
Yolanda KingYolanda King (1955–2007), Martin
Luther
KingKing III (b. 1957),
Dexter Scott KingDexter Scott King (b. 1961), and Bernice
KingKing (b. 1963).[29] During their marriage,
KingKing limited Coretta's role
in the civil rights movement, expecting her to be a housewife and
mother.[30]
At age 25 in 1954,
KingKing was called as pastor of the Dexter Avenue
Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.[31]
Doctoral studies
See also: Martin Luther
KingKing Jr. authorship issues
KingKing began doctoral studies in systematic theology at Boston
University and received his Ph.D. degree on June 5, 1955, with a
dissertation (initially supervised by
Edgar S. BrightmanEdgar S. Brightman and, upon the
latter's death, by Lotan Harold DeWolf) titled A Comparison of the
Conceptions of God in the Thinking of
Paul TillichPaul Tillich and Henry Nelson
Wieman.[32] While pursuing doctoral studies,
KingKing worked as an
assistant minister at Boston's historic Twelfth Baptist Church with
Rev. William Hunter Hester. Hester was an old friend of King's father,
and was an important influence on King.[33]
Decades later, an academic inquiry in October 1991 concluded that
portions of his dissertation had been plagiarized and he had acted
improperly. However, "[d]espite its finding, the committee said that
'no thought should be given to the revocation of Dr. King's doctoral
degree,' an action that the panel said would serve no
purpose."[32][5][34] The committee also found that the dissertation
still "makes an intelligent contribution to scholarship." A letter is
now attached to the copy of King's dissertation held in the university
library, noting that numerous passages were included without the
appropriate quotations and citations of sources.[35] Significant
debate exists on how to interpret King's plagiarism.[36]
Montgomery bus boycott, 1955
Main articles:
Montgomery bus boycottMontgomery bus boycott and
Jim Crow lawsJim Crow laws § Public
arena

In March 1955, Claudette Colvin—a fifteen-year-old black schoolgirl
in Montgomery—refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in
violation of Jim Crow laws, local laws in the Southern United States
that enforced racial segregation.
KingKing was on the committee from the
Birmingham African-American community that looked into the case; E. D.
Nixon and
Clifford DurrClifford Durr decided to wait for a better case to pursue
because the incident involved a minor.[37]
Nine months later on December 1, 1955, a similar incident occurred
when
Rosa ParksRosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a
city bus.[38] The two incidents led to the Montgomery bus boycott,
which was urged and planned by Nixon and led by King.[39] The boycott
lasted for 385 days,[40] and the situation became so tense that King's
house was bombed.[41]
KingKing was arrested during this campaign, which
concluded with a
United StatesUnited States District Court ruling in Browder v.
Gayle that ended racial segregation on all Montgomery public
buses.[42][43] King's role in the bus boycott transformed him into a
national figure and the best-known spokesman of the civil rights
movement.[44]
Southern
ChristianChristian Leadership Conference
In 1957, King, Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, Joseph Lowery, and
other civil rights activists founded the Southern
ChristianChristian Leadership
Conference (SCLC). The group was created to harness the moral
authority and organizing power of black churches to conduct nonviolent
protests in the service of civil rights reform. The group was inspired
by the crusades of evangelist Billy Graham, who befriended
KingKing after
he attended a 1957 Graham crusade in New York City.[45]
KingKing led the
SCLC until his death.[46] The SCLC's 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for
Freedom was the first time
KingKing addressed a national audience.[47]
Other civil rights leaders involved in the SCLC with
KingKing included:
James Bevel, Allen Johnson, Curtis W. Harris, Walter E. Fauntroy, C.
T. Vivian, Andrew Young, The Freedom Singers, Charles Evers, Cleveland
Robinson, Randolph Blackwell, Annie Bell Robinson Devine, Charles
Kenzie Steele, Alfred Daniel Williams King, Benjamin Hooks, Aaron
Henry and Bayard Rustin.[48]
On September 20, 1958,
KingKing was signing copies of his book Stride
Toward Freedom in Blumstein's department store in Harlem[49] when he
narrowly escaped death. Izola Curry—a mentally ill black woman who
thought that
KingKing was conspiring against her with communists—stabbed
him in the chest with a letter opener.
KingKing underwent emergency
surgery with three doctors: Aubre de Lambert Maynard, Emil Naclerio
and John W. V. Cordice; he remained hospitalized for several weeks.
Curry was later found mentally incompetent to stand trial.[50][51] In
1959, he published a short book called The Measure of A Man, which
contained his sermons "What is Man?" and "The Dimensions of a Complete
Life." The sermons argued for man's need for God's love and criticized
the racial injustices of Western civilization.[52]
Harry Wachtel joined King's legal advisor Clarence B. Jones in
defending four ministers of the SCLC in the libel case New York Times
Co. v. Sullivan; the case was litigated in reference to the newspaper
advertisement "Heed Their Rising Voices". Wachtel founded a tax-exempt
fund to cover the expenses of the suit and to assist the nonviolent
civil rights movement through a more effective means of fundraising.
This organization was named the "Gandhi Society for Human Rights."
KingKing served as honorary president for the group. He was displeased
with the pace that President Kennedy was using to address the issue of
segregation. In 1962,
KingKing and the Gandhi Society produced a document
that called on the President to follow in the footsteps of Abraham
Lincoln and issue an executive order to deliver a blow for civil
rights as a kind of Second Emancipation Proclamation. Kennedy did not
execute the order.[53]

The FBI was under written directive from Attorney General Robert F.
Kennedy when it began tapping King's telephone line in the fall of
1963.[54] Kennedy was concerned that public allegations of communists
in the SCLC would derail the administration's civil rights
initiatives. He warned
KingKing to discontinue these associations and
later felt compelled to issue the written directive that authorized
the FBI to wiretap
KingKing and other SCLC leaders.[55] FBI Director J.
Edgar Hoover feared the civil rights movement and investigated the
allegations of communist infiltration. When no evidence emerged to
support this, the FBI used the incidental details caught on tape over
the next five years in attempts to force
KingKing out of his leadership
position, in the
COINTELPROCOINTELPRO program.[56]
KingKing believed that organized, nonviolent protest against the system of
southern segregation known as
Jim Crow lawsJim Crow laws would lead to extensive
media coverage of the struggle for black equality and voting rights.
Journalistic accounts and televised footage of the daily deprivation
and indignities suffered by Southern blacks, and of segregationist
violence and harassment of civil rights workers and marchers, produced
a wave of sympathetic public opinion that convinced the majority of
Americans that the civil rights movement was the most important issue
in American politics in the early 1960s.[57][58]
KingKing organized and led marches for blacks' right to vote,
desegregation, labor rights, and other basic civil rights.[43] Most of
these rights were successfully enacted into the law of the United
States with the passage of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1965
VotingVoting Rights Act.[59][60]
KingKing and the SCLC put into practice many of the principles of the
Christian LeftChristian Left and applied the tactics of nonviolent protest with
great success by strategically choosing the method of protest and the
places in which protests were carried out. There were often dramatic
stand-offs with segregationist authorities, who sometimes turned
violent.[61]
KingKing was criticized by many groups during the course of his
participation in the civil rights movement. This included opposition
by more militant blacks such as Nation of Islam member Malcolm X.[62]
Stokely CarmichaelStokely Carmichael was a separatist and disagreed with King's plea for
racial integration because he considered it an insult to a uniquely
African-American culture.[63]
Omali YeshitelaOmali Yeshitela urged Africans to
remember the history of violent European colonization and how power
was not secured by Europeans through integration, but by violence and
force.[64]
Albany Movement
Main article: Albany Movement
The
Albany Movement was a desegregation coalition formed in Albany,
Georgia, in November 1961. In December,
KingKing and the SCLC became
involved. The movement mobilized thousands of citizens for a
broad-front nonviolent attack on every aspect of segregation within
the city and attracted nationwide attention. When
KingKing first visited
on December 15, 1961, he "had planned to stay a day or so and return
home after giving counsel."[65] The following day he was swept up in a
mass arrest of peaceful demonstrators, and he declined bail until the
city made concessions. According to King, "that agreement was
dishonored and violated by the city" after he left town.[65]
KingKing returned in July 1962 and was given the option of forty-five days
in jail or a $178 fine (equivalent to $1,400 in 2017); he chose jail.
Three days into his sentence, Police Chief Laurie Pritchett discreetly
arranged for King's fine to be paid and ordered his release. "We had
witnessed persons being kicked off lunch counter stools ...
ejected from churches ... and thrown into jail ... But for
the first time, we witnessed being kicked out of jail."[66] It was
later acknowledged by the
KingKing Center that
Billy GrahamBilly Graham was the one
who bailed
KingKing out of jail during this time.[67]
After nearly a year of intense activism with few tangible results, the
movement began to deteriorate.
KingKing requested a halt to all
demonstrations and a "Day of Penance" to promote nonviolence and
maintain the moral high ground. Divisions within the black community
and the canny, low-key response by local government defeated
efforts.[68] Though the Albany effort proved a key lesson in tactics
for
KingKing and the national civil rights movement,[69] the national
media was highly critical of King's role in the defeat, and the SCLC's
lack of results contributed to a growing gulf between the organization
and the more radical SNCC. After Albany,
KingKing sought to choose
engagements for the SCLC in which he could control the circumstances,
rather than entering into pre-existing situations.[70]
Birmingham campaign
Main article: Birmingham campaign

KingKing was arrested for protesting the treatment of blacks in
Birmingham.

In April 1963, the SCLC began a campaign against racial segregation
and economic injustice in Birmingham, Alabama. The campaign used
nonviolent but intentionally confrontational tactics, developed in
part by Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker. Black people in Birmingham, organizing
with the SCLC, occupied public spaces with marches and sit-ins, openly
violating laws that they considered unjust.
King's intent was to provoke mass arrests and "create a situation so
crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to
negotiation."[71] However, the campaign's early volunteers did not
succeed in shutting down the city, or in drawing media attention to
the police's actions. Over the concerns of an uncertain King, SCLC
strategist
James BevelJames Bevel changed the course of the campaign by
recruiting children and young adults to join in the
demonstrations.[72]
NewsweekNewsweek called this strategy a Children's
Crusade.[73][74]
During the protests, the Birmingham Police Department, led by Eugene
"Bull" Connor, used high-pressure water jets and police dogs against
protesters, including children. Footage of the police response was
broadcast on national television news and dominated the nation's
attention, shocking many white Americans and consolidating black
Americans behind the movement.[75] Not all of the demonstrators were
peaceful, despite the avowed intentions of the SCLC. In some cases,
bystanders attacked the police, who responded with force.
KingKing and the
SCLC were criticized for putting children in harm's way. But the
campaign was a success: Connor lost his job, the "Jim Crow" signs came
down, and public places became more open to blacks. King's reputation
improved immensely.[73]
KingKing was arrested and jailed early in the campaign—his 13th
arrest[76] out of 29.[77] From his cell, he composed the now-famous
Letter from Birmingham JailLetter from Birmingham Jail that responds to calls on the movement to
pursue legal channels for social change.
KingKing argues that the crisis
of racism is too urgent, and the current system too entrenched: "We
know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily
given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."[78] He
points out that the Boston Tea Party, a celebrated act of rebellion in
the American colonies, was illegal civil disobedience, and that,
conversely, "everything
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler did in Germany was 'legal'."[78]
KingKing also expresses his frustration with white moderates and clergymen
too timid to oppose an unjust system:

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's
great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White
Citizen's Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate,
who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative
peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the
presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the
goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action";
who paternalistic-ally believes he can set the timetable for another
man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who
constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient
season."[78]

St. Augustine, Florida
Main article: St. Augustine movement
In March 1964,
KingKing and the SCLC joined forces with Robert Hayling's
then-controversial movement in St. Augustine, Florida. Hayling's group
had been affiliated with the
NAACPNAACP but was forced out of the
organization for advocating armed self-defense alongside nonviolent
tactics. However, the pacifist SCLC accepted them.[79]
KingKing and the
SCLC worked to bring white Northern activists to St. Augustine,
including a delegation of rabbis and the 72-year-old mother of the
governor of Massachusetts, all of whom were arrested.[80][81] During
June, the movement marched nightly through the city, "often facing
counter demonstrations by the Klan, and provoking violence that
garnered national media attention." Hundreds of the marchers were
arrested and jailed. During the course of this movement, the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 was passed.[82]
Selma, Alabama
Main article: Selma to Montgomery marches
In December 1964,
KingKing and the SCLC joined forces with the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Selma, Alabama, where the
SNCC had been working on voter registration for several months.[83] A
local judge issued an injunction that barred any gathering of three or
more people affiliated with the SNCC, SCLC, DCVL, or any of 41 named
civil rights leaders. This injunction temporarily halted civil rights
activity until
KingKing defied it by speaking at Brown Chapel on January
2, 1965.[84] During the 1965 march to Montgomery, Alabama, violence by
state police and others against the peaceful marchers resulted in much
publicity, which made Alabama's racism visible nationwide.
New York City
On February 6, 1964,
KingKing delivered the inaugural speech of a lecture
series initiated at the
New SchoolNew School called "The American Race Crisis."
No audio record of his speech has been found, but in August 2013,
almost 50 years later, the school discovered an audiotape with 15
minutes of a question-and-answer session that followed King's address.
In these remarks,
KingKing referred to a conversation he had recently had
with
Jawaharlal NehruJawaharlal Nehru in which he compared the sad condition of many
African Americans to that of India's untouchables.[85]
March on Washington, 1963
Main article: March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

King, representing the SCLC, was among the leaders of the "Big Six"
civil rights organizations who were instrumental in the organization
of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which took place on
August 28, 1963. The other leaders and organizations comprising the
Big Six were
Roy WilkinsRoy Wilkins from the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People; Whitney Young, National Urban League;
A. Philip Randolph, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; John Lewis,
SNCC; and James L. Farmer Jr., of the Congress of Racial Equality.[86]
Bayard Rustin's open homosexuality, support of democratic socialism,
and his former ties to the
Communist Party USACommunist Party USA caused many white and
African-American leaders to demand
KingKing distance himself from
Rustin,[87] which
KingKing agreed to do.[88] However, he did collaborate
in the 1963 March on Washington, for which Rustin was the primary
logistical and strategic organizer.[89][90] For King, this role was
another which courted controversy, since he was one of the key figures
who acceded to the wishes of
United StatesUnited States President John F. Kennedy
in changing the focus of the march.[91][92] Kennedy initially opposed
the march outright, because he was concerned it would negatively
impact the drive for passage of civil rights legislation. However, the
organizers were firm that the march would proceed.[93] With the march
going forward, the Kennedys decided it was important to work to ensure
its success. President Kennedy was concerned the turnout would be less
than 100,000. Therefore, he enlisted the aid of additional church
leaders and Walter Reuther, president of the United Automobile
Workers, to help mobilize demonstrators for the cause.[94]

KingKing gave his most famous speech, "I Have a Dream", before the Lincoln
Memorial during the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

The march originally was conceived as an event to dramatize the
desperate condition of blacks in the southern U.S. and an opportunity
to place organizers' concerns and grievances squarely before the seat
of power in the nation's capital. Organizers intended to denounce the
federal government for its failure to safeguard the civil rights and
physical safety of civil rights workers and blacks. However, the group
acquiesced to presidential pressure and influence, and the event
ultimately took on a far less strident tone.[95] As a result, some
civil rights activists felt it presented an inaccurate, sanitized
pageant of racial harmony;
Malcolm XMalcolm X called it the "Farce on
Washington", and the Nation of Islam forbade its members from
attending the march.[95][96]

The march did, however, make specific demands: an end to racial
segregation in public schools; meaningful civil rights legislation,
including a law prohibiting racial discrimination in employment;
protection of civil rights workers from police brutality; a $2 minimum
wage for all workers (equivalent to $16 in 2017); and self-government
for Washington, D.C., then governed by congressional
committee.[97][98][99] Despite tensions, the march was a resounding
success.[100] More than a quarter of a million people of diverse
ethnicities attended the event, sprawling from the steps of the
Lincoln MemorialLincoln Memorial onto the
National MallNational Mall and around the reflecting
pool. At the time, it was the largest gathering of protesters in
Washington, D.C.'s history.[100]
KingKing delivered a 17-minute speech, later known as "I Have a Dream". In
the speech's most famous passage—in which he departed from his
prepared text, possibly at the prompting of Mahalia Jackson, who
shouted behind him, "Tell them about the dream!"[101][102]—King
said:[103]

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the
difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a
dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the
true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident:
that all men are created equal.'
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of
former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit
down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state
sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of
oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by
the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious
racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of
interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama,
little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with
little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.

"I Have a Dream" came to be regarded as one of the finest speeches in
the history of American oratory.[104] The March, and especially King's
speech, helped put civil rights at the top of the agenda of reformers
in the
United StatesUnited States and facilitated passage of the Civil Rights Act
of 1964.[105][106]
The original typewritten copy of the speech, including King's
handwritten notes on it, was discovered in 1984 to be in the hands of
George Raveling, the first African-American basketball coach of the
University of Iowa. In 1963, Raveling, then 26, was standing near the
podium, and immediately after the oration, impulsively asked
KingKing if
he could have his copy of the speech. He got it.[107]

Acting on James Bevel's call for a march from Selma to Montgomery,
King, Bevel, and the SCLC, in partial collaboration with SNCC,
attempted to organize the march to the state's capital. The first
attempt to march on March 7, 1965, was aborted because of mob and
police violence against the demonstrators. This day has become known
as Bloody Sunday and was a major turning point in the effort to gain
public support for the civil rights movement. It was the clearest
demonstration up to that time of the dramatic potential of King's
nonviolence strategy. King, however, was not present.[18]
On March 5,
KingKing met with officials in the Johnson Administration in
order to request an injunction against any prosecution of the
demonstrators. He did not attend the march due to church duties, but
he later wrote, "If I had any idea that the state troopers would use
the kind of brutality they did, I would have felt compelled to give up
my church duties altogether to lead the line."[108] Footage of police
brutality against the protesters was broadcast extensively and aroused
national public outrage.[109]
KingKing next attempted to organize a march for March 9. The SCLC
petitioned for an injunction in federal court against the State of
Alabama; this was denied and the judge issued an order blocking the
march until after a hearing. Nonetheless,
KingKing led marchers on March 9
to the
Edmund Pettus BridgeEdmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, then held a short prayer session
before turning the marchers around and asking them to disperse so as
not to violate the court order. The unexpected ending of this second
march aroused the surprise and anger of many within the local
movement.[110] The march finally went ahead fully on March 25,
1965.[111][112] At the conclusion of the march on the steps of the
state capitol,
KingKing delivered a speech that became known as "How Long,
Not Long." In it,
KingKing stated that equal rights for African Americans
could not be far away, "because the arc of the moral universe is long,
but it bends toward justice."[a][113][114]
ChicagoChicago open housing movement, 1966
Main article:
ChicagoChicago Freedom Movement

KingKing stands behind President Johnson as he signs the Civil Rights Act
of 1964.

In 1966, after several successes in the south, King, Bevel, and others
in the civil rights organizations took the movement to the North, with
ChicagoChicago as their first destination.
KingKing and Ralph Abernathy, both
from the middle class, moved into a building at 1550 S. Hamlin Avenue,
in the slums of North Lawndale[115] on Chicago's West Side, as an
educational experience and to demonstrate their support and empathy
for the poor.[116]
The SCLC formed a coalition with CCCO, Coordinating Council of
Community Organizations, an organization founded by Albert Raby, and
the combined organizations' efforts were fostered under the aegis of
the
ChicagoChicago Freedom Movement.[117] During that spring, several white
couple/black couple tests of real estate offices uncovered racial
steering: discriminatory processing of housing requests by couples who
were exact matches in income, background, number of children, and
other attributes.[118] Several larger marches were planned and
executed: in Bogan, Belmont Cragin, Jefferson Park, Evergreen Park (a
suburb southwest of Chicago), Gage Park, Marquette Park, and
others.[117][119][120]

KingKing later stated and Abernathy wrote that the movement received a
worse reception in
ChicagoChicago than in the South. Marches, especially the
one through Marquette Park on August 5, 1966, were met by thrown
bottles and screaming throngs. Rioting seemed very possible.[121][122]
King's beliefs militated against his staging a violent event, and he
negotiated an agreement with Mayor
Richard J. DaleyRichard J. Daley to cancel a march
in order to avoid the violence that he feared would result.[123] King
was hit by a brick during one march but continued to lead marches in
the face of personal danger.[124]
When
KingKing and his allies returned to the South, they left Jesse
Jackson, a seminary student who had previously joined the movement in
the South, in charge of their organization.[125] Jackson continued
their struggle for civil rights by organizing the Operation
Breadbasket movement that targeted chain stores that did not deal
fairly with blacks.[126]
A 1967 CIA document declassified in 2017 downplayed King's role in the
"black militant situation" in Chicago, with a source stating that King
“sought at least constructive, positive projects.”[127]
Opposition to the Vietnam War
See also: Opposition to
United StatesUnited States involvement in the Vietnam War

External audio

You can listen to the speech, "Why I Am Opposed to the War in
Vietnam", by Martin Luther
KingKing here.

KingKing was long opposed to American involvement in the Vietnam War,[128]
but at first avoided the topic in public speeches in order to avoid
the interference with civil rights goals that criticism of President
Johnson's policies might have created.[128] However, at the urging of
SCLC's former Director of Direct Action and now the head of the Spring
Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, James Bevel,[129]
KingKing eventually agreed to publicly oppose the war as opposition was
growing among the American public.[128] During an April 4, 1967,
appearance at the
New York CityNew York City Riverside Church—exactly one year
before his death—
KingKing delivered a speech titled "Beyond Vietnam: A
Time to Break Silence."[130] He spoke strongly against the U.S.'s role
in the war, arguing that the U.S. was in Vietnam "to occupy it as an
American colony"[131] and calling the U.S. government "the greatest
purveyor of violence in the world today."[132] He also connected the
war with economic injustice, arguing that the country needed serious
moral change:

A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring
contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will
look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West
investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only
to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of
the countries, and say: "This is not just."[133]

KingKing also opposed the
Vietnam WarVietnam War because it took money and resources
that could have been spent on social welfare at home. The United
States Congress was spending more and more on the military and less
and less on anti-poverty programs at the same time. He summed up this
aspect by saying, "A nation that continues year after year to spend
more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is
approaching spiritual death."[133] He stated that North Vietnam "did
not begin to send in any large number of supplies or men until
American forces had arrived in the tens of thousands",[134] and
accused the U.S. of having killed a million Vietnamese, "mostly
children."[135]
KingKing also criticized American opposition to North
Vietnam's land reforms.[136]
King's opposition cost him significant support among white allies,
including President Johnson, Billy Graham,[137] union leaders and
powerful publishers.[138] "The press is being stacked against me",
KingKing said,[139] complaining of what he described as a double standard
that applauded his nonviolence at home, but deplored it when applied
"toward little brown Vietnamese children."[140] Life magazine called
the speech "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio
Hanoi",[133] and
The Washington PostThe Washington Post declared that
KingKing had
"diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his
people."[140][141]

KingKing speaking to an anti-Vietnam war rally at the University of
Minnesota in St. Paul, April 27, 1967

The "Beyond Vietnam" speech reflected King's evolving political
advocacy in his later years, which paralleled the teachings of the
progressive Highlander Research and Education Center, with which he
was affiliated.[142][143]
KingKing began to speak of the need for
fundamental changes in the political and economic life of the nation,
and more frequently expressed his opposition to the war and his desire
to see a redistribution of resources to correct racial and economic
injustice.[144] He guarded his language in public to avoid being
linked to communism by his enemies, but in private he sometimes spoke
of his support for democratic socialism.[145][146] In a 1952 letter to
Coretta Scott, he said: "I imagine you already know that I am much
more socialistic in my economic theory than
capitalistic ..."[147] In one speech, he stated that "something
is wrong with capitalism" and claimed, "There must be a better
distribution of wealth, and maybe America must move toward a
democratic socialism."[148]
KingKing had read Marx while at Morehouse, but
while he rejected "traditional capitalism", he also rejected communism
because of its "materialistic interpretation of history" that denied
religion, its "ethical relativism", and its "political
totalitarianism."[149]
KingKing also stated in "Beyond Vietnam" that "true compassion is more
than flinging a coin to a beggar ... it comes to see that an
edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."[150]
KingKing quoted
a
United StatesUnited States official who said that from Vietnam to Latin America,
the country was "on the wrong side of a world revolution."[150] King
condemned America's "alliance with the landed gentry of Latin
America", and said that the U.S. should support "the shirtless and
barefoot people" in the
Third WorldThird World rather than suppressing their
attempts at revolution.[150]
King's stance on Vietnam encouraged Allard K. Lowenstein, William
Sloane Coffin and Norman Thomas, with the support of anti-war
Democrats, to attempt to persuade
KingKing to run against President
Johnson in the 1968
United StatesUnited States presidential election. King
contemplated but ultimately decided against the proposal on the
grounds that he felt uneasy with politics and considered himself
better suited for his morally unambiguous role as an activist.[151]
On April 15, 1967,
KingKing participated and spoke at an anti-war march
from Manhattan's Central Park to the United Nations. The march was
organized by the Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in
Vietnam and initiated by its chairman, James Bevel. At the U.N. King
also brought up issues of civil rights and the draft.

I have not urged a mechanical fusion of the civil rights and peace
movements. There are people who have come to see the moral imperative
of equality, but who cannot yet see the moral imperative of world
brotherhood. I would like to see the fervor of the civil-rights
movement imbued into the peace movement to instill it with greater
strength. And I believe everyone has a duty to be in both the
civil-rights and peace movements. But for those who presently choose
but one, I would hope they will finally come to see the moral roots
common to both.[152]

Seeing an opportunity to unite civil rights activists and anti-war
activists,[129] Bevel convinced
KingKing to become even more active in the
anti-war effort.[129] Despite his growing public opposition towards
the Vietnam War,
KingKing was also not fond of the hippie culture which
developed from the anti-war movement.[153] In his 1967 Massey Lecture,
KingKing stated:

The importance of the hippies is not in their unconventional behavior,
but in the fact that hundreds of thousands of young people, in turning
to a flight from reality, are expressing a profoundly discrediting
view on the society they emerge from.[153]

On January 13, 1968 (the day after President Johnson's State of the
Union Address),
KingKing called for a large march on Washington against
"one of history's most cruel and senseless wars."[154][155]

We need to make clear in this political year, to congressmen on both
sides of the aisle and to the president of the United States, that we
will no longer tolerate, we will no longer vote for men who continue
to see the killings of Vietnamese and Americans as the best way of
advancing the goals of freedom and self-determination in Southeast
Asia.[154][155]

Poor People's Campaign, 1968
Main article: Poor People's Campaign

A shantytown established in Washington, D. C. to protest economic
conditions as a part of the Poor People's Campaign.

In 1968,
KingKing and the SCLC organized the "Poor People's Campaign" to
address issues of economic justice.
KingKing traveled the country to
assemble "a multiracial army of the poor" that would march on
Washington to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience at the Capitol
until Congress created an "economic bill of rights" for poor
Americans.[156][157]
The campaign was preceded by King's final book, Where Do We Go from
Here: Chaos or Community? which laid out his view of how to address
social issues and poverty.
KingKing quoted from
Henry GeorgeHenry George and George's
book, Progress and Poverty, particularly in support of a guaranteed
basic income.[158][159][160] The campaign culminated in a march on
Washington, D.C., demanding economic aid to the poorest communities of
the United States.
KingKing and the SCLC called on the government to invest in rebuilding
America's cities. He felt that Congress had shown "hostility to the
poor" by spending "military funds with alacrity and generosity." He
contrasted this with the situation faced by poor Americans, claiming
that Congress had merely provided "poverty funds with
miserliness."[157] His vision was for change that was more
revolutionary than mere reform: he cited systematic flaws of "racism,
poverty, militarism and materialism", and argued that "reconstruction
of society itself is the real issue to be faced."[161]
The
Poor People's CampaignPoor People's Campaign was controversial even within the civil
rights movement. Rustin resigned from the march, stating that the
goals of the campaign were too broad, that its demands were
unrealizable, and that he thought that these campaigns would
accelerate the backlash and repression on the poor and the black.[162]
After King's death
The plan to set up a shantytown in Washington, D.C., was carried out
soon after the April 4 assassination. Criticism of King's plan was
subdued in the wake of his death, and the SCLC received an
unprecedented wave of donations for the purpose of carrying it out.
The campaign officially began in Memphis, on May 2, at the hotel where
KingKing was murdered.[163]
Thousands of demonstrators arrived on the
National MallNational Mall and
established a camp they called "Resurrection City." They stayed for
six weeks.[164]
AssassinationAssassination and aftermath
Main article:
AssassinationAssassination of Martin Luther
KingKing Jr.

The Lorraine Motel, where
KingKing was assassinated, is now the site of
the National Civil Rights Museum.

I've Been to the Mountaintop

Final 30 seconds of "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech by Martin
Luther
KingKing Jr.

Problems playing this file? See media help.

On March 29, 1968,
KingKing went to Memphis, Tennessee, in support of the
black sanitary public works employees, who were represented by AFSCME
Local 1733. The workers had been on strike since March 12 for higher
wages and better treatment. In one incident, black street repairmen
received pay for two hours when they were sent home because of bad
weather, but white employees were paid for the full
day.[165][166][167]
On April 3,
KingKing addressed a rally and delivered his "I've Been to the
Mountaintop" address at Mason Temple, the world headquarters of the
Church of God in Christ. King's flight to Memphis had been delayed by
a bomb threat against his plane.[168] In the prophetic peroration of
the last speech of his life, in reference to the bomb threat, King
said the following:

And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk
about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of
our sick white brothers?
Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days
ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the
mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a
long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that
now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the
mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may
not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a
people, will get to the promised land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not
worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen
the glory of the coming of the Lord.[169]

KingKing was booked in Room 306 at the
Lorraine MotelLorraine Motel (owned by Walter
Bailey) in Memphis. Abernathy, who was present at the assassination,
testified to the
United StatesUnited States House Select Committee on
Assassinations that
KingKing and his entourage stayed at Room 306 so often
that it was known as the "King-Abernathy suite."[170] According to
Jesse Jackson, who was present, King's last words on the balcony
before his assassination were spoken to musician Ben Branch, who was
scheduled to perform that night at an event
KingKing was attending: "Ben,
make sure you play 'Take My Hand, Precious Lord' in the meeting
tonight. Play it real pretty."[171]
KingKing was fatally shot by
James Earl RayJames Earl Ray at 6:01 p.m., April 4,
1968, as he stood on the motel's second-floor balcony. The bullet
entered through his right cheek, smashing his jaw, then traveled down
his spinal cord before lodging in his shoulder.[172][173] Abernathy
heard the shot from inside the motel room and ran to the balcony to
find
KingKing on the floor.[174] Jackson stated after the shooting that he
cradled King's head as
KingKing lay on the balcony, but this account was
disputed by other colleagues of King; Jackson later changed his
statement to say that he had "reached out" for King.[175]
After emergency chest surgery,
KingKing died at St. Joseph's Hospital at
7:05 p.m.[176] According to biographer Taylor Branch, King's
autopsy revealed that though only 39 years old, he "had the heart of a
60 year old", which Branch attributed to the stress of 13 years in the
civil rights movement.[177]
Aftermath
Further information:
KingKing assassination riots

The assassination led to a nationwide wave of race riots in
Washington, D.C., Chicago, Baltimore, Louisville, Kansas City, and
dozens of other cities.[178][179] Presidential candidate Robert F.
Kennedy was on his way to
IndianapolisIndianapolis for a campaign rally when he
was informed of King's death. He gave a short, improvised speech to
the gathering of supporters informing them of the tragedy and urging
them to continue King's ideal of nonviolence.[180] The following day,
he delivered a prepared response in Cleveland.[181]
James FarmerJames Farmer Jr.,
and other civil rights leaders also called for non-violent action,
while the more militant
Stokely CarmichaelStokely Carmichael called for a more forceful
response.[182] The city of Memphis quickly settled the strike on terms
favorable to the sanitation workers.[183]
President
Lyndon B. JohnsonLyndon B. Johnson declared April 7 a national day of
mourning for the civil rights leader.[184] Vice President Hubert
Humphrey attended King's funeral on behalf of the President, as there
were fears that Johnson's presence might incite protests and perhaps
violence.[185] At his widow's request, King's last sermon at Ebenezer
Baptist Church was played at the funeral,[186] a recording of his
"Drum Major" sermon, given on February 4, 1968. In that sermon, King
made a request that at his funeral no mention of his awards and honors
be made, but that it be said that he tried to "feed the hungry",
"clothe the naked", "be right on the [Vietnam] war question", and
"love and serve humanity."[187]
His good friend
Mahalia JacksonMahalia Jackson sang his favorite hymn, "Take My Hand,
Precious Lord", at the funeral.[188]
Two months after King's death, James Earl Ray—who was on the loose
from a previous prison escape—was captured at London Heathrow
Airport while trying to leave England on a false Canadian passport. He
was using the alias Ramon George Sneyd on his way to white-ruled
Rhodesia.[189] Ray was quickly extradited to Tennessee and charged
with King's murder. He confessed to the assassination on March 10,
1969, though he recanted this confession three days later.[190] On the
advice of his attorney Percy Foreman, Ray pleaded guilty to avoid a
trial conviction and thus the possibility of receiving the death
penalty. He was sentenced to a 99-year prison term.[190][191] Ray
later claimed a man he met in Montreal, Quebec, with the alias "Raoul"
was involved and that the assassination was the result of a
conspiracy.[192][193] He spent the remainder of his life attempting,
unsuccessfully, to withdraw his guilty plea and secure the trial he
never had.[191] Ray died in 1998 at age 70.[194]
Allegations of conspiracy

Ray's lawyers maintained he was a scapegoat similar to the way that
John F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy assassin
Lee Harvey OswaldLee Harvey Oswald is seen by conspiracy
theorists.[195] Supporters of this assertion said that Ray's
confession was given under pressure and that he had been threatened
with the death penalty.[191][196] They admitted that Ray was a thief
and burglar, but claimed that he had no record of committing violent
crimes with a weapon.[193] However, prison records in different U.S.
cities have shown that he was incarcerated on numerous occasions for
charges of armed robbery.[197] In a 2008 interview with CNN, Jerry
Ray, the younger brother of James Earl Ray, claimed that James was
smart and was sometimes able to get away with armed robbery. Jerry Ray
said that he had assisted his brother on one such robbery. "I never
been with nobody as bold as he is," Jerry said. "He just walked in and
put that gun on somebody, it was just like it's an everyday
thing."[197]
Those suspecting a conspiracy in the assassination point to the two
successive ballistics tests which proved that a rifle similar to Ray's
Remington Gamemaster had been the murder weapon. Those tests did not
implicate Ray's specific rifle.[191][198] Witnesses near
KingKing at the
moment of his death said that the shot came from another location.
They said that it came from behind thick shrubbery near the boarding
house—which had been cut away in the days following the
assassination—and not from the boarding house window.[199] However,
Ray's fingerprints were found on various objects (a rifle, a pair of
binoculars, articles of clothing, a newspaper) that were left in the
bathroom where it was determined the gunfire came from.[197] An
examination of the rifle containing Ray's fingerprints also determined
that at least one shot was fired from the firearm at the time of the
assassination.[197]
In 1997, King's son
Dexter Scott KingDexter Scott King met with Ray, and publicly
supported Ray's efforts to obtain a new trial.[200]
Two years later, King's widow
Coretta Scott KingCoretta Scott King and the couple's
children won a wrongful death claim against
Loyd JowersLoyd Jowers and "other
unknown co-conspirators." Jowers claimed to have received $100,000 to
arrange King's assassination. The jury of six whites and six blacks
found in favor of the
KingKing family, finding Jowers to be complicit in a
conspiracy against
KingKing and that government agencies were party to the
assassination.[201][202]
William F. Pepper represented the
KingKing family
in the trial.[203]
In 2000, the
U.S. Department of JusticeU.S. Department of Justice completed the investigation
into Jowers' claims but did not find evidence to support allegations
about conspiracy. The investigation report recommended no further
investigation unless some new reliable facts are presented.[204] A
sister of Jowers admitted that he had fabricated the story so he could
make $300,000 from selling the story, and she in turn corroborated his
story in order to get some money to pay her income tax.[205][206]
In 2002,
The New York TimesThe New York Times reported that a church minister, Rev.
Ronald Denton Wilson, claimed his father, Henry Clay Wilson—not
James Earl Ray—assassinated King. He stated, "It wasn't a racist
thing; he thought Martin Luther
KingKing was connected with communism, and
he wanted to get him out of the way." Wilson provided no evidence to
back up his claims.[207]
KingKing researchers
David Garrow and
Gerald PosnerGerald Posner disagreed with William
F. Pepper's claims that the government killed King.[208] In 2003,
Pepper published a book about the long investigation and trial, as
well as his representation of
James Earl RayJames Earl Ray in his bid for a trial,
laying out the evidence and criticizing other accounts.[209][210]
King's friend and colleague, James Bevel, also disputed the argument
that Ray acted alone, stating, "There is no way a ten-cent white boy
could develop a plan to kill a million-dollar black man."[211] In
2004,
Jesse JacksonJesse Jackson stated:

The fact is there were saboteurs to disrupt the march. And within our
own organization, we found a very key person who was on the government
payroll. So infiltration within, saboteurs from without and the press
attacks. ... I will never believe that
James Earl RayJames Earl Ray had the
motive, the money and the mobility to have done it himself. Our
government was very involved in setting the stage for and I think the
escape route for James Earl Ray.[212]

Legacy

Martin Luther
KingKing Jr. statue over the west entrance of Westminster
Abbey, installed in 1998

King's main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the U.S.
Just days after King's assassination, Congress passed the Civil Rights
Act of 1968.[213] Title VIII of the Act, commonly known as the Fair
Housing Act, prohibited discrimination in housing and housing-related
transactions on the basis of race, religion, or national origin (later
expanded to include sex, familial status, and disability). This
legislation was seen as a tribute to King's struggle in his final
years to combat residential discrimination in the U.S.[213]
Internationally, King's legacy includes influences on the Black
Consciousness Movement and civil rights movement in South
Africa.[214][215] King's work was cited by and served as an
inspiration for South African leader Albert Lutuli, who fought for
racial justice in his country and was later awarded the Nobel
Prize.[216] The day following King's assassination, school teacher
Jane Elliott conducted her first "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise with
her class of elementary school students in Riceville, Iowa. Her
purpose was to help them understand King's death as it related to
racism, something they little understood as they lived in a
predominantly white community.[217]
KingKing has become a national icon in
the history of American liberalism and American progressivism.[218]
KingKing also influenced Irish politician and activist John Hume. Hume,
the former leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, cited
King's legacy as quintessential to the Northern Irish civil rights
movement and the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, calling him
"one of my great heroes of the century."[219][220][221]
King's wife
Coretta Scott KingCoretta Scott King followed in her husband's footsteps and
was active in matters of social justice and civil rights until her
death in 2006. The same year that Martin Luther
KingKing was assassinated,
she established the
KingKing Center in Atlanta, Georgia, dedicated to
preserving his legacy and the work of championing nonviolent conflict
resolution and tolerance worldwide.[222] Their son, Dexter King,
serves as the center's chairman.[223][224] Daughter Yolanda King, who
died in 2007, was a motivational speaker, author and founder of Higher
Ground Productions, an organization specializing in diversity
training.[225]
Even within the
KingKing family, members disagree about his religious and
political views about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
King's widow Coretta publicly said that she believed her husband would
have supported gay rights.[226] However, his youngest child, Bernice
King, has said publicly that he would have been opposed to gay
marriage.[227]
On February 4, 1968, at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, in speaking about
how he wished to be remembered after his death,
KingKing stated:

I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther
KingKing Jr.
tried to give his life serving others. I'd like for somebody to say
that day that Martin Luther
KingKing Jr. tried to love somebody.
I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war
question. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed
the hungry. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my
life to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say on that day
that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. And I
want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.
Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major. Say that I was a drum
major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum
major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not
matter. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine
and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave
a committed life behind.[182][228]

Martin Luther
KingKing Jr. Day
Main article: Martin Luther
KingKing Jr. Day
Beginning in 1971, cities such as St. Louis, Missouri, and states
established annual holidays to honor King.[229] At the White House
Rose Garden on November 2, 1983, President
Ronald ReaganRonald Reagan signed a bill
creating a federal holiday to honor King. Observed for the first time
on January 20, 1986, it is called Martin Luther
KingKing Jr. Day.
Following President George H. W. Bush's 1992 proclamation, the holiday
is observed on the third Monday of January each year, near the time of
King's birthday.[230][231] On January 17, 2000, for the first time,
Martin Luther King Jr. DayMartin Luther King Jr. Day was officially observed in all fifty U.S.
states.[232]
ArizonaArizona (1992),
New HampshireNew Hampshire (1999) and
UtahUtah (2000) were
the last three states to recognize the holiday.
UtahUtah previously
celebrated the holiday at the same time but under the name Human
Rights Day.[233]
Liturgical commemorations
KingKing is remembered as a martyr by the Episcopal Church in the United
States of America with an annual feast day on the anniversary of his
death, April 4.[234] The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
commemorates
KingKing liturgically on the anniversary of his birth,
January 15.[235]
UK legacy and The Martin Luther
KingKing Peace Committee

Banner at the 2012 Republican National Convention

In the United Kingdom, The Northumbria and Newcastle Universities
Martin Luther
KingKing Peace Committee[236] exists to honor King's legacy,
as represented by his final visit to the UK to receive an honorary
degree from Newcastle University in 1967.[237] The Peace Committee
operates out of the chaplaincies of the city's two universities,
Northumbria and Newcastle, both of which remain centres for the study
of Martin Luther
KingKing and the US civil rights movement. Inspired by
King's vision, it undertakes a range of activities across the UK as it
seeks to "build cultures of peace."
In 2017, Newcastle University unveiled a bronze statue of
KingKing to
celebrate the 50th anniversary of his honorary doctorate
ceremony.[238] The Students Union also voted to rename their bar
'Luthers'.[239]
Ideas, influences, and political stances
Religion

As a
ChristianChristian minister, King's main influence was
Jesus ChristJesus Christ and
the
ChristianChristian gospels, which he would almost always quote in his
religious meetings, speeches at church, and in public discourses.
King's faith was strongly based in Jesus' commandment of loving your
neighbor as yourself, loving God above all, and loving your enemies,
praying for them and blessing them. His nonviolent thought was also
based in the injunction to turn the other cheek in the Sermon on the
Mount, and Jesus' teaching of putting the sword back into its place
(Matthew 26:52).[240] In his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail, King
urged action consistent with what he describes as Jesus' "extremist"
love, and also quoted numerous other
ChristianChristian pacifist authors, which
was very usual for him. In another sermon, he stated:

Before I was a civil rights leader, I was a preacher of the Gospel.
This was my first calling and it still remains my greatest commitment.
You know, actually all that I do in civil rights I do because I
consider it a part of my ministry. I have no other ambitions in life
but to achieve excellence in the
ChristianChristian ministry. I don't plan to
run for any political office. I don't plan to do anything but remain a
preacher. And what I'm doing in this struggle, along with many others,
grows out of my feeling that the preacher must be concerned about the
whole man.[241][242]

In his speech "I've Been to the Mountaintop", he stated that he just
wanted to do God's will.
Nonviolence

Veteran African-American civil rights activist
Bayard RustinBayard Rustin was
King's first regular advisor on nonviolence.[243]
KingKing was also
advised by the white activists
Harris Wofford and Glenn Smiley.[244]
Rustin and Smiley came from the
ChristianChristian pacifist tradition, and
Wofford and Rustin both studied Gandhi's teachings. Rustin had applied
nonviolence with the
Journey of Reconciliation campaign in the
1940s,[245] and Wofford had been promoting
Gandhism to Southern blacks
since the early 1950s.[244]
KingKing had initially known little about
Gandhi and rarely used the term "nonviolence" during his early years
of activism in the early 1950s.
KingKing initially believed in and
practiced self-defense, even obtaining guns in his household as a
means of defense against possible attackers. The pacifists guided King
by showing him the alternative of nonviolent resistance, arguing that
this would be a better means to accomplish his goals of civil rights
than self-defense.
KingKing then vowed to no longer personally use
arms.[246][247]
In the aftermath of the boycott,
KingKing wrote Stride Toward Freedom,
which included the chapter Pilgrimage to Nonviolence.
KingKing outlined
his understanding of nonviolence, which seeks to win an opponent to
friendship, rather than to humiliate or defeat him. The chapter draws
from an address by Wofford, with Rustin and
Stanley Levison also
providing guidance and ghostwriting.[248]
KingKing was inspired by
Mahatma GandhiMahatma Gandhi and his success with nonviolent
activism, and as a theology student,
KingKing described Gandhi as being
one of the "individuals who greatly reveal the working of the Spirit
of God".[249]
KingKing had "for a long time ... wanted to take a trip
to India."[250] With assistance from Harris Wofford, the American
Friends Service Committee, and other supporters, he was able to fund
the journey in April 1959.[251][252] The trip to India affected King,
deepening his understanding of nonviolent resistance and his
commitment to America's struggle for civil rights. In a radio address
made during his final evening in India,
KingKing reflected, "Since being
in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of
nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed
people in their struggle for justice and human dignity."
King's admiration of Gandhi's nonviolence did not diminish in later
years. He went so far as to hold up his example when receiving the
Nobel Peace PrizeNobel Peace Prize in 1964, hailing the "successful precedent" of using
nonviolence "in a magnificent way by Mohandas K. Gandhi to challenge
the might of the British Empire ... He struggled only with the
weapons of truth, soul force, non-injury and courage."[253]
Another influence for King's nonviolent method was Henry David
Thoreau's essay On Civil Disobedience and its theme of refusing to
cooperate with an evil system.[254] He also was greatly influenced by
the works of Protestant theologians
Reinhold NiebuhrReinhold Niebuhr and Paul
Tillich,[255] and said that Walter Rauschenbusch's
ChristianityChristianity and
the Social Crisis left an "indelible imprint" on his thinking by
giving him a theological grounding for his social concerns.[256][257]
KingKing was moved by Rauschenbusch's vision of Christians spreading
social unrest in "perpetual but friendly conflict" with the state,
simultaneously critiquing it and calling it to act as an instrument of
justice.[258] He was apparently unaware of the American tradition of
ChristianChristian pacifism exemplified by
Adin BallouAdin Ballou and William Lloyd
Garrison[259]
KingKing frequently referred to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount
as central for his work.[260][261][262][257]
KingKing also sometimes used
the concept of "agape" (brotherly
ChristianChristian love).[263] However, after
1960, he ceased employing it in his writings.[264]
Even after renouncing his personal use of guns,
KingKing had a complex
relationship with the phenomenon of self-defense in the movement. He
publicly discouraged it as a widespread practice, but acknowledged
that it was sometimes necessary.[265] Throughout his career
KingKing was
frequently protected by other civil rights activists who carried arms,
such as Colonel Stone Johnson,[266] Robert Hayling, and the Deacons
for Defense and Justice.[267][268]
Politics
As the leader of the SCLC,
KingKing maintained a policy of not publicly
endorsing a U.S. political party or candidate: "I feel someone must
remain in the position of non-alignment, so that he can look
objectively at both parties and be the conscience of both—not the
servant or master of either."[269] In a 1958 interview, he expressed
his view that neither party was perfect, saying, "I don't think the
Republican party is a party full of the almighty God nor is the
Democratic party. They both have weaknesses ... And I'm not
inextricably bound to either party."[270]
KingKing did praise Democratic
Senator
Paul DouglasPaul Douglas of Illinois as being the "greatest of all
senators" because of his fierce advocacy for civil rights causes over
the years.[271]
KingKing critiqued both parties' performance on promoting racial equality:

Actually, the Negro has been betrayed by both the Republican and the
Democratic party. The Democrats have betrayed him by capitulating to
the whims and caprices of the Southern Dixiecrats. The Republicans
have betrayed him by capitulating to the blatant hypocrisy of
reactionary right wing northern Republicans. And this coalition of
southern Dixiecrats and right wing reactionary northern Republicans
defeats every bill and every move towards liberal legislation in the
area of civil rights.[272]

Although
KingKing never publicly supported a political party or candidate
for president, in a letter to a civil rights supporter in October 1956
he said that he was undecided as to whether he would vote for Adlai
Stevenson or Dwight Eisenhower, but that "In the past I always voted
the Democratic ticket."[273] In his autobiography,
KingKing says that in
1960 he privately voted for Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy: "I
felt that Kennedy would make the best president. I never came out with
an endorsement. My father did, but I never made one."
KingKing adds that
he likely would have made an exception to his non-endorsement policy
for a second Kennedy term, saying "Had President Kennedy lived, I
would probably have endorsed him in 1964."[274] In 1964,
KingKing urged
his supporters "and all people of goodwill" to vote against Republican
Senator
Barry GoldwaterBarry Goldwater for president, saying that his election "would
be a tragedy, and certainly suicidal almost, for the nation and the
world."[275]
KingKing supported the ideals of democratic socialism,
although he was reluctant to speak directly of this support due to the
anti-communist sentiment being projected throughout the United States
at the time, and the association of socialism with communism. King
believed that capitalism could not adequately provide the basic
necessities of many American people, particularly the African-American
community.[276]
Compensation
See also: Reparations for slavery debate in the United States
KingKing stated that black Americans, as well as other disadvantaged
Americans, should be compensated for historical wrongs. In an
interview conducted for
PlayboyPlayboy in 1965, he said that granting black
Americans only equality could not realistically close the economic gap
between them and whites.
KingKing said that he did not seek a full
restitution of wages lost to slavery, which he believed impossible,
but proposed a government compensatory program of $50 billion
over ten years to all disadvantaged groups.[277]
He posited that "the money spent would be more than amply justified by
the benefits that would accrue to the nation through a spectacular
decline in school dropouts, family breakups, crime rates,
illegitimacy, swollen relief rolls, rioting and other social
evils."[278] He presented this idea as an application of the common
law regarding settlement of unpaid labor, but clarified that he felt
that the money should not be spent exclusively on blacks. He stated,
"It should benefit the disadvantaged of all races."[279]
Family planning
On being awarded the
Planned ParenthoodPlanned Parenthood Federation of America's
Margaret SangerMargaret Sanger Award on May 5, 1966,
KingKing said:

Recently, the press has been filled with reports of sightings of
flying saucers. While we need not give credence to these stories, they
allow our imagination to speculate on how visitors from outer space
would judge us. I am afraid they would be stupefied at our conduct.
They would observe that for death planning we spend billions to create
engines and strategies for war. They would also observe that we spend
millions to prevent death by disease and other causes. Finally they
would observe that we spend paltry sums for population planning, even
though its spontaneous growth is an urgent threat to life on our
planet. Our visitors from outer space could be forgiven if they
reported home that our planet is inhabited by a race of insane men
whose future is bleak and uncertain.
There is no human circumstance more tragic than the persisting
existence of a harmful condition for which a remedy is readily
available. Family planning, to relate population to world resources,
is possible, practical and necessary. Unlike plagues of the dark ages
or contemporary diseases we do not yet understand, the modern plague
of overpopulation is soluble by means we have discovered and with
resources we possess.
What is lacking is not sufficient knowledge of the solution but
universal consciousness of the gravity of the problem and education of
the billions who are its victims...[280][281]

FBI and King's personal life

Memo describing FBI attempts to disrupt the Poor People's Campaign
with fraudulent claims about King‍—‌part of the COINTELPRO
campaign against the anti-war and civil rights movements

FBI surveillance and wiretapping
FBI director
J. Edgar HooverJ. Edgar Hoover personally ordered surveillance of King,
with the intent to undermine his power as a civil rights
leader.[138][282] According to the Church Committee, a 1975
investigation by the U.S. Congress, "From December 1963 until his
death in 1968, Martin Luther
KingKing Jr. was the target of an intensive
campaign by the
Federal Bureau of InvestigationFederal Bureau of Investigation to 'neutralize' him as
an effective civil rights leader."[283]
In the fall of 1963, the FBI received authorization from Attorney
General
Robert F. KennedyRobert F. Kennedy to proceed with wiretapping of King's phone
lines.[284] The Bureau informed President John F. Kennedy; he and his
brother unsuccessfully tried to persuade
KingKing to dissociate himself
from Stanley Levison, a New York lawyer who had been involved with
Communist Party USA.[285][286] Although Robert Kennedy only gave
written approval for limited wiretapping of King's telephone lines "on
a trial basis, for a month or so",[287] Hoover extended the clearance
so his men were "unshackled" to look for evidence in any areas of
King's life they deemed worthy.[55] The Bureau placed wiretaps on the
home and office phone lines of Levison and King, and bugged King's
rooms in hotels as he traveled across the country.[285][288] In 1967,
Hoover listed the SCLC as a black nationalist hate group, with the
instructions: "No opportunity should be missed to exploit through
counterintelligence techniques the organizational and personal
conflicts of the leaderships of the groups ... to insure the
targeted group is disrupted, ridiculed, or discredited."[282][289]
NSA monitoring of King's communications
In a secret operation code-named "Minaret", the National Security
Agency (NSA) monitored the communications of leading Americans,
including King, who criticized the U.S. war in Vietnam.[290] A review
by the NSA itself concluded that Minaret was "disreputable if not
outright illegal."[290]
Allegations of communism
For years, Hoover had been suspicious about potential influence of
communists in social movements such as labor unions and civil
rights.[291] Hoover directed the FBI to track
KingKing in 1957, and the
SCLC as it was established (it did not have a full-time executive
director until 1960).[56] The investigations were largely superficial
until 1962, when the FBI learned that one of King's most trusted
advisers was
New York CityNew York City lawyer Stanley Levison.[292]
The FBI feared Levison was working as an "agent of influence" over
King, in spite of its own reports in 1963 that Levison had left the
Party and was no longer associated in business dealings with
them.[293] Another
KingKing lieutenant, Hunter Pitts O'Dell, was also
linked to the Communist Party by sworn testimony before the House
Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).[294] However, by 1976 the FBI
had acknowledged that it had not obtained any evidence that King
himself or the SCLC were actually involved with any communist
organizations.[283]
For his part,
KingKing adamantly denied having any connections to
communism. In a 1965
PlayboyPlayboy interview, he stated that "there are as
many Communists in this freedom movement as there are Eskimos in
Florida."[295] He argued that Hoover was "following the path of
appeasement of political powers in the South" and that his concern for
communist infiltration of the civil rights movement was meant to "aid
and abet the salacious claims of southern racists and the extreme
right-wing elements."[283] Hoover did not believe King's pledge of
innocence and replied by saying that
KingKing was "the most notorious liar
in the country."[296] After
KingKing gave his "I Have A Dream" speech
during the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, the FBI described
KingKing as "the most dangerous and effective Negro leader in the
country."[288] It alleged that he was "knowingly, willingly and
regularly cooperating with and taking guidance from communists."[297]
The attempt to prove that
KingKing was a communist was related to the
feeling of many segregationists that blacks in the South were happy
with their lot but had been stirred up by "communists" and "outside
agitators."[298] However, the 1950s and '60s civil rights movement
arose from activism within the black community dating back to before
World War I.
KingKing said that "the Negro revolution is a genuine
revolution, born from the same womb that produces all massive social
upheavals—the womb of intolerable conditions and unendurable
situations."[299]
CIA surveillance
CIA files declassified in 2017 revealed that the agency was
investigating possible links between
KingKing and
CommunismCommunism after a
Washington Post article dated November 4, 1964 claimed he was invited
to the Soviet Union and that Ralph Abernathy, spokesman for subject,
refused to comment on the source of the invitation.[300]
Adultery

Having concluded that
KingKing was dangerous due to communist
infiltration, the FBI attempted to discredit
KingKing through revelations
regarding his private life. FBI surveillance of King, some of it since
made public, attempted to demonstrate that he also engaged in numerous
extramarital affairs.[288]
Lyndon JohnsonLyndon Johnson once said that
KingKing was a
"hypocritical preacher."[301]
In his 1989 autobiography And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, Ralph
Abernathy stated that
KingKing had a "weakness for women", although they
"all understood and believed in the biblical prohibition against sex
outside of marriage. It was just that he had a particularly difficult
time with that temptation."[302] In a later interview, Abernathy said
that he only wrote the term "womanizing", that he did not specifically
say
KingKing had extramarital sex and that the infidelities
KingKing had were
emotional rather than sexual.[303] Abernathy criticized the media for
sensationalizing the statements he wrote about King's affairs,[303]
such as the allegation that he admitted in his book that
KingKing had a
sexual affair the night before he was assassinated.[303] In his
original wording, Abernathy had claimed he saw
KingKing coming out of his
room with a lady when he awoke the next morning and later claimed that
"he may have been in there discussing and debating and trying to get
her to go along with the movement, I don't know."[303]
In his 1986 book Bearing the Cross,
David Garrow wrote about a number
of extramarital affairs, including one woman
KingKing saw almost daily.
According to Garrow, "that relationship ... increasingly became
the emotional centerpiece of King's life, but it did not eliminate the
incidental couplings ... of King's travels." He alleged that King
explained his extramarital affairs as "a form of anxiety reduction."
Garrow asserted that King's supposed promiscuity caused him "painful
and at times overwhelming guilt."[304] King's wife Coretta appeared to
have accepted his affairs with equanimity, saying once that "all that
other business just doesn't have a place in the very high level
relationship we enjoyed."[305] Shortly after
Bearing the Cross was
released, civil rights author
Howell Raines gave the book a positive
review but opined that Garrow's allegations about King's sex life were
"sensational" and stated that Garrow was "amassing facts rather than
analyzing them."[306]
The FBI distributed reports regarding such affairs to the executive
branch, friendly reporters, potential coalition partners and funding
sources of the SCLC, and King's family.[307] The bureau also sent
anonymous letters to
KingKing threatening to reveal information if he did
not cease his civil rights work.[308] The FBI–
KingKing suicide letter
sent to
KingKing just before he received the
Nobel Peace PrizeNobel Peace Prize read, in
part:

The American public, the church organizations that have been
helping—Protestants, Catholics and Jews will know you for what you
are—an evil beast. So will others who have backed you. You are done.
King, there is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is.
You have just 34 days in which to do (this exact number has been
selected for a specific reason, it has definite practical significant
[sic]). You are done. There is but one way out for you. You better
take it before your filthy fraudulent self is bared to the
nation.[310]

The letter was accompanied by a tape recording—excerpted from FBI
wiretaps—of several of King's extramarital liaisons.[311] King
interpreted this package as an attempt to drive him to suicide,[312]
although William Sullivan, head of the Domestic Intelligence Division
at the time, argued that it may have only been intended to "convince
Dr.
KingKing to resign from the SCLC."[283]
KingKing refused to give in to the
FBI's threats.[288]
In 1977, Judge
John Lewis Smith Jr. ordered all known copies of the
recorded audiotapes and written transcripts resulting from the FBI's
electronic surveillance of
KingKing between 1963 and 1968 to be held in
the National Archives and sealed from public access until 2027.[313]
Police observation during the assassination
A fire station was located across from the Lorraine Motel, next to the
boarding house in which
James Earl RayJames Earl Ray was staying. Police officers
were stationed in the fire station to keep
KingKing under
surveillance.[314] Agents were watching
KingKing at the time he was
shot.[315] Immediately following the shooting, officers rushed out of
the station to the motel. Marrell McCollough, an undercover police
officer, was the first person to administer first aid to King.[316]
The antagonism between
KingKing and the FBI, the lack of an all points
bulletin to find the killer, and the police presence nearby led to
speculation that the FBI was involved in the assassination.[317]
Awards and recognition

KingKing was awarded at least fifty honorary degrees from colleges and
universities.[318] On October 14, 1964,
KingKing became the youngest
winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded to him for leading
nonviolent resistance to racial prejudice in the U.S.[319] In 1965, he
was awarded the American Liberties Medallion by the American Jewish
Committee for his "exceptional advancement of the principles of human
liberty."[318][320] In his acceptance remarks,
KingKing said, "Freedom is
one thing. You have it all or you are not free."[321]
In 1957, he was awarded the
Spingarn MedalSpingarn Medal from the NAACP.[322] Two
years later, he won the
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for his book Stride
Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story.[323] In 1966, the Planned
Parenthood Federation of America awarded
KingKing the Margaret Sanger
Award for "his courageous resistance to bigotry and his lifelong
dedication to the advancement of social justice and human
dignity."[324] Also in 1966,
KingKing was elected as a fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[325] In November 1967 he made a
24-hour trip to the United Kingdom to receive an honorary degree from
Newcastle University, being the first African-American to be so
honoured by Newcastle.[326] In a moving impromptu acceptance
speech,[327] he said

There are three urgent and indeed great problems that we face not only
in the
United StatesUnited States of America but all over the world today. That is
the problem of racism, the problem of poverty and the problem of war.

Martin Luther
KingKing Jr. was the conscience of his generation. He gazed
upon the great wall of segregation and saw that the power of love
could bring it down. From the pain and exhaustion of his fight to
fulfill the promises of our founding fathers for our humblest
citizens, he wrung his eloquent statement of his dream for America. He
made our nation stronger because he made it better. His dream sustains
us yet.[329]

KingKing and his wife were also awarded the
Congressional Gold MedalCongressional Gold Medal in
2004.[330]
KingKing was second in Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired People of the
20th Century.[331] In 1963, he was named Time Person of the Year, and
in 2000, he was voted sixth in an online "Person of the Century" poll
by the same magazine.[332]
KingKing placed third in the Greatest American
contest conducted by the
Discovery ChannelDiscovery Channel and AOL.[333]
Five-dollar bill
On April 20, 2016,
Treasury SecretaryTreasury SecretaryJacob LewJacob Lew announced that the $5,
$10, and $20 bills would all undergo redesign prior to 2020. Lew said
that while Lincoln would remain on the obverse of the $5 bill, the
reverse would be redesigned to depict various historical events that
had occurred at the Lincoln Memorial. Among the planned designs are
images from King's "I Have a Dream" speech and the 1939 concert by
opera singer Marian Anderson.[334]
Works

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Bibliowiki has original media or text related to this article: Martin
Luther
KingKing Jr. (in the public domain in Canada)
Martin Luther
KingKing Jr. at Curlie (based on DMOZ)
The
KingKing Center
FBI file on Martin Luther
KingKing Jr.
Martin Luther
KingKing Jr.'s Nobel Peace Prize, Civil Rights Digital
Library
Works by or about Martin Luther
KingKing Jr. at Internet Archive
Dr. Martin Luther
KingKing Jr. at Buffalo, digital collection of Dr.
King's visit and speech in Buffalo, New York on November 9, 1967, from
the University at Buffalo Libraries

Speeches and interviews

"Martin Luther
KingKing Jr. Historic Speeches and Interviews"
KingKing Institute Encyclopedia multimedia
The New Negro,
KingKing interviewed by J. Waites Waring
"Beyond Vietnam" speech text and audio
"Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam", sermon at the Ebenezer
Baptist Church on April 30, 1967 (audio of speech with video 23:31)
"Walk to Freedom", Detroit, June 23, 1963. Walter P. Reuther Library
of Labor and Urban Affairs. Wayne State University.
Audio from April 1961 King, "The Church on the Frontier of Racial
Tensions", speech at Southern Seminary
Martin Luther
KingKing Jr. on IMDb
Appearances on C-SPAN